Bloodhound 1,000mph car goes into administration

The project to race a car at over 1,000mph has run into a financial roadblock with the company behind the venture going into administration.

The Bloodhound supersonic vehicle is all but built but needs a £25m investment if it is to break records on a dried-out lakebed in South Africa.

The administrators, FRP Advisory LLP, have already begun to talk to potential suitors and want to hear from others.

But without the funds the project faces being wound up in the coming weeks.

Bloodhound is, by any measure, the most sophisticated land speed record car ever conceived.

To be powered by a Rolls-Royce Eurofighter jet engine bolted to a rocket, it should easily smash the existing world mark of 763mph (1,228km/h). And computer simulations indicate it ought to be capable of going much, much faster still.

But although all the R&D is done, with the car even conducting some low-speed trials - the project simply cannot now move forward into its end phase unless the necessary funding is in place.

"This is the situation," explained Andrew Sheridan from FRP Advisory LLP's Bristol office.

"We have a legal entity that has gone into administration because it hasn't got any more cash. But there is a project there that is very much alive and on the cusp of delivering its goal, which is ground-breaking with leading technology.

"However, it does need circa £25m to get it over the line, and that now requires an investor, be that a wealthy individual or a corporate of some kind," he told BBC News.

Bloodhound is a private undertaking. It is funded through donation, sponsorship and partnership. Bloodhound has excelled at leveraging all three, but ultimately this funding model has not delivered sufficient cash to fully sustain such a complex venture.

The last two-to-three years have been an especially tough environment in which to raise financial support. The investment landscape is difficult, in part because of Brexit uncertainty, but principally because many large brands that might once have put their name on the side of a car to build awareness are now using other marketing tools, such as social media.

By going into administration, Bloodhound Programme Ltd, the company behind Project Bloodhound, gets some breathing space to allow it to find a solution.